Game of Thrones: Catch the Throne: The Mixtape, Volume 2

via the Soundcloud

Silicon Valley season 2

Midnight City

If you tolerate this your children will be next

The song's theme is taken from the Spanish Civil War, and the idealism of Welsh volunteers who joined the left-wing International Brigades fighting for the Spanish Republic against Francisco Franco's military rebels. The song takes its name from a Republican poster of the time, displaying a photograph of a young child killed by the Nationalists under a sky of bombers with the stark warning "If you tolerate this, your children will be next" written at the bottom.^[2]

Various works on the Spanish Civil War were the inspiration for this song, and certain lyrics pertain directly to these works. For example, the line "If I can shoot rabbits/then I can shoot fascists" is attributed to a remark made by a man who signed up with the Republican fighters to his brother in an interview years later. This was originally quoted in the book Miners Against Fascism by Hywel Francis. Another work George Orwell's first-hand account, "Homage to Catalonia". "I've walked Las Ramblas/but not with real intent" brings to mind the account in Orwell's book of fighting on the Ramblas, with the various factions seemingly getting nowhere, with the fighting and often a sense of camaraderie overriding the vaunted principles each side was supposed to be fighting for. Nicky Wire has also acknowledged that he was also inspired by a song by The Clash, "Spanish Bombs", which has a similar subject.

Release

The recording was issued as two CD singles: the first included versions of "Prologue to History" and "Montana/Autumn/78", and the second featured a remix by Massive Attack and a mix by David Holmes.

It became the first of the band's two number one singles in the UK Singles Chart. ^[1] It also became the group's biggest success on the Irish Singles Chart (where it reached number 3), and is the only Manic Street Preachers track to be released as a single in the United States.

In March 2009, it was discovered that the song was used on the website of the British National Party as the soundtrack of an article describing "the violence, hatred, fragmentation and despair" wrought on London by the "great multicultural experiment".^[3] The choice of this song was considered ironic by many, considering the song contains lyrics such as "So if I can shoot rabbits/Then I can shoot fascists". Record company Sony successfully had the song removed from the site on the grounds of unauthorised use.^[3] The BNP later released a press statement claiming that "the song had mistakenly been automatically streamed on to its site and had nothing to do with the official party", and that "you can interpret the lyrics any way you want".^[3]

Rogue

20 additional episodes have been ordered.

Sorrowing man, look how worn you've become

You once were Lord of the barren sea

There's blood on our hands in this perfect madness

You're living on borrowed time

Oh how you have lost your way,

Oh how you have lost your way

There's no sympathy for we don't know the cure

Cause what you've got, well it runs too deep

But you've lived and breathed more than any man I know

But you're not done, oh, at least I hope

Oh how you have lost your way,

Oh how you have lost your way

In this life we have made together

Oh how you have lost your way

Oh, how you have lost your way

Oh, how you have lost your way.

Lake Michigan

Heaven is a switchboard that you want to fight
She would even miss you if you taught her sight
Power politician leaning to the right
Baby's got a trust fund
That she'll want to go off like that
Get off of my stack
Leave a little window
Get off of my stack

Stone Roses

Reminds me of Fall, or puts me in a Fall mood.

The Replacements

By chance I caught the reunited Replacements playing on Jimmy Fallon's show which was weird.

Yes

As a kid I was more of Yes man than a Rush man. A neighborhood friend had a much older stoner brother who had a large, eclectic album collection. I was drawn by Yes's imaginative album covers and grew to like music.

Warpaint

Franz Ferdinand was shot 100 years ago today

Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated

yadda yadda yadda

smokestacks over Auschwitz, mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Avant Gardener

Courtney Barnett's Avant Gardener

Pitchfork

One of the tags on Melbourne-based songwriter Courtney Barnett's Bandcamp page is "slacker," a term with roots in the 1890s but stronger ties to a decade about a hundred years later. Barnett's music-- like the term-- feels older, too. Building on the wordy irreverence of mid-'60s Bob Dylan and a Byrds-ian blend of psychedelia, folk and country, "Avant Gardener" tells the story of a girl dragging her underemployed ass out of bed late on a Monday morning to try her hand at gardening-- at which point she suffers a panic attack. 

The scene unfolds like a dream: "Halfway down High Street, Andy looks ambivalent/ He's probably wondering what I'm doing getting in an ambulance," Barnett sings, her voice drifting through the lines in sweet speak-sing. "The paramedic thinks I'm clever 'cause I play guitar/ I think she's clever 'cause she stops people dying." They're both right. Later, the song's poor narrator struggles to get a good pull on her asthma inhaler. "I was never good at smoking bongs," she confesses. Some slacker.

AVANT GARDENER

I sleep in late
Another day
Oh what a wonder
Oh what a waste.
It’s a monday
It’s so mundane
What exciting things
Will happen today?
The yard is full of hard rubbish it’s a mess and
I guess the neighbours must think we run a meth lab
We should ammend that
I pull the sheets back
It’s 40 degrees
And i feel like i’m dying.
Life’s getting hard in here
So i do some gardening
Anything to take my mind away from where it’s sposed to be.
The nice lady next door talks of green beds
And all the nice things that she wants to plant in them
I wanna grow tomatoes on the front steps.
Sunflowers, bean sprouts, sweet corn and radishes.
I feel pro-active
I pull out weeds
All of a sudden
I’m having trouble breathing in.

My hands are shaky
My knees are weak
I can’t seem to stand
On my own two feet
I’m breathing but i’m wheezing
Feel like i’m emphysem-in’
My throat feels like a funnel
Filled with weet bix and kerosene and
Oh no, next thing i know
They call up triple o
I’d rather die than owe the hospital
Till I get old
I get adrenalin
Straight to the heart
I feel like Uma Thurman
Post-overdosing kick start
Reminds me of the time
When i was really sick and i
Had too much psuedoefedryn and i
Couldn’t sleep at night
Halfway down high street, andy looks ambivalent
He’s probably wondering what i’m doing getting in an ambulance
The paramedic thinks i’m clever cos i play guitar
I think she’s clever cos she stops people dying
Anaphylactic and super hypocondriactic
Should’ve stayed in bed today
I much prefer the mundane.
I take a hit from
An asthma puffer
I do it wrong
I was never good at smoking bongs.
I’m not that good at breathing in.

You're Gonna Go Far, Kid

The Black Keys

The Black Keys on SNL tonight with Charlize Theron.

M83 - Midnight City

(a young Piketty. M83 is a French band.)

Game of Thrones

Uncle Tupelo

24 years later, does No Depression live up to its reputation? by Annie Zaleski

same love

Macklemore & Lewis’ “Same Love” is more than a pro-gay marriage anthem

how to dance to Radiohead

One of my favorites: M83 - Midnight City